She had but a humble opinion of her own importance and her own deserts, so very readily excused and overlooked the neglect.
But his wife's conduct was very mortifying to Eric, as he showed in his apology for her, on Elsie's rejoining him and Lester on the porch.
Elsie accepted his excuses very sweetly, assuring him that she expected to find much enjoyment in his society, her husband's, and Evelyn's, and would have been very sorry had Laura returned home for her sake before her visit to Newport was completed.
Evelyn, too, felt much chagrin on account of the lack of courtesy and hospitality in her mother's behavior toward these relatives, esteemed by herself and her father as worthy of all honor.

She made no remark about it to either of them, but tried very earnestly to fill her mother's place as hostess during her absence.
She was a very womanly little girl, with a quaint, old-fashioned manner which Elsie thought quite charming.

It was touching to see the devoted affection with which she hovered over and waited upon her sick father.
She was seldom absent from his side for more than a few minutes at a time, except when he sent her out for air and exercise.
Elsie usually accompanied her on her walks and drives, while Lester remained with his brother.
Eric seized these opportunities to open his heart to Lester in regard to the future of his only and beloved child, his one great anxiety in the prospect of death.
"I cannot leave her to her mother's care," he said, with a sigh and a look of anguish.

"It is a sad, a humiliating thing to say in regard to one's wife, but I have been sorely disappointed in my choice of a partner for life.
"We married for love, and she is very dear to me still, but our tastes and views are widely dissimilar.

She has no relish for the quiet pleasures of home, finds the duties of a wife and mother extremely irksome, and is not content unless living in a constant whirl of excitement, a never-ending round of pleasure-parties, balls, concerts, and other fashionable amusements.
"I cannot join her in it; and so, for years past, we have gone our separate ways.
"Evelyn, her mother having no time to bestow upon her, has been left almost entirely to me, and I have earnestly striven to train her up to a noble Christian womanhood; to cultivate her mind and heart, and give her a taste for far higher pleasures than those to be found in the giddy whirl of fashionable follies.
"I think I have already succeeded to some extent; but she is so young that, of course, much of the work yet remains to be done; and Laura is not the person to carry it on; also, I think, would not covet the task.
"Lester, if you will undertake her guardianship and receive her into your family, to be brought up under the influence of your lovely wife and mother-in-law, I shall die happy.